US Drones Capture Pictures Of Boko Haram Camps, Movements

As American military and intelligence specialists joined the hunt for Nigeria’s missing schoolgirls, U.S. officials expressed frustration Thursday with the country’s inability to act on fresh intelligence about the Boko Haram extremists who took more than 200 teenagers captive and threatened to sell them into slavery.

U.S. surveillance imagery has shown suspected bands of Boko Haram militants on the move in northeast Nigeria

Imagery from U.S. surveillance drones and satellites over the last week has shown suspected bands of Boko Haram militants setting up temporary camps and moving through isolated villages and along dirt tracks in northeastern Nigeria, U.S. officials say.

The Obama administration has shared the imagery with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s government in Abuja. But Nigeria’s security forces are hampered by poor equipment and training and have failed to respond quickly, said a U.S. official familiar with the growing search operation.

U.S. Defense officials believe militants with Boko Haram, a militant Islamic sect, split the girls into several groups after the April 14 abduction from a government-run school in Chibok village. The leader of the militants, Abubakar Shekau, said this week that he would release some of the girls in exchange for imprisoned members of his group.

Bolstered by international help, the Nigerian-led search has now expanded to include an ungoverned area of desert and scrub roughly the size of West Virginia that crosses the porous borders into neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, U.S. officials say. The girls’ locations are still unknown, however.

Mounting U.S. frustration with the case spilled into the open Thursday at a Senate hearing.

“It is impossible to fathom that we might have actionable intelligence and we would not have the wherewithal — whether by the Nigerians themselves or by other entities helping the Nigerians — to be able to conduct a rescue mission,” said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“In general, Nigeria has failed to mount an effective campaign against Boko Haram,” Alice Friend, the Pentagon’s principal director for Africa, told committee members. “In the face of a new and more sophisticated threat than it has faced before, its security forces have been slow to adapt with new strategies, new doctrines and new tactics.”

Parents of the abducted girls have complained that they reported the location of the militants and the girls days after the kidnapping but that security forces did not respond. Jonathan reportedly plans to fly to Chibok on Friday for the first time since the girls were seized.
In addition to the U.S. drones and satellite coverage, a manned U.S. surveillance plane has been flying sorties over Nigeria this week. The British government has pledged to send a surveillance aircraft, and France, Israel and China have offered to share intelligence and satellite imagery, officials said.

The U.S team of about 30 advisors includes military experts in logistics, communications and information sharing. The White House has said it has no plan to send troops to take an active part in search-and-rescue operations.

U.S. options are limited. A 1997 law prohibits American forces from working with foreign military units that have been accused of chronic human rights violations. The law has prevented U.S. officials from dealing with a Nigerian counter-terrorism unit that has experience tracking Boko Haram, officials said.
Boko Haram’s brutal insurgency has created widespread fear in northeast Nigeria, but the military’s harsh operations have left many villagers distrustful of authorities and unwilling to pass on tips, U.S. experts say.

Human rights groups have documented widespread abuses by Nigerian forces over the last few years, including the burning of homes and farm buildings, shooting suspected Boko Haram members as revenge for attacks on police, and detaining young men indefinitely without trial.

The army and police “are not disciplined and are very abusive,” Sarah Margon, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch, said Thursday.
Many Nigerians believe the military responds only when Boko Haram fighters attack government facilities, not when they kill civilians, said Lauren Ploch, an Africa specialist at the Congressional Research Service.

Boko Haram, meanwhile, has built up an arsenal of weapons and a fleet of trucks stolen from police stations and military barracks.

2 COMMENTS

If America’s interest in participating in #ChibokGirls rescue is 2 undermine our military and call them names, they should pack their bags and go! U.S Marines in Iraq and Pakistan unleashed terror in March such that dogs fed on corpses for two weeks. How come, they hv not been accused of gross human rights abuse by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch et al.

What is the sense of this article if there is no picture or video shown of this camp or movement of people.
Probably just like everything else about the US, simply BS. They got a picture of just average civilians in a village going about their every day business. However, they ought to be on guard because the US will bomb & kill them and declare they were terrorists.about to do some made up lie. Then, when the dust settle you may find these “terrorists” were little children, ladies and others just trying to make another day for themselves.
The USA (& Israel) is likely the very arms & financial supplier to Boko Haram and they will seek to destabilize Africa to the point that China will abandon Africa thereby giving the US (& Israel) a dominant power in Africa.